Just a few days ago I was on the back porch of an amazing suite, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean, watching a storm blow in. The most energy I exerted was to move from my lounge chair on the beach to my lounge chair by the pool. The biggest problem I had was that the music by the pool was too loud. Life was good… this is what vacations should be like.
And yet there was a restlessness inside of me. Not only me, Corey and Jimmy talked about it too. There’s a need to do something. There’s a whole island here and so much we could see and experience. There’s probably a slew of emails I could have checked and work I could have accomplished. I even had the need to do something spiritually – shouldn’t I be praying about something or journaling more or going to tell somebody about Jesus?
Instead… God spent a week reminding me of His commandment:
BE STILL.
I appreciate the fact that God has commanded us to rest. It’s not a suggestion, “Why don’t you rest some?” It’s not an idea, “I think resting could be a good thing for you.” It is a command by God. I need that. If God merely suggested that I rest, I probably would never do it. 
I don’t think this is a struggle unique to American Culture. After all, God’s first command to rest was given to the Israelites in the ten commandments. Apparently, they needed to be told as well. Not only were they told they must rest, but God laid out a specific day and time… that way nothing could be left to chance. Even beyond the commandment to rest every 7th day, God instructed the Israelites that every 7th year would be a year of Jubilee – a year of rest and joy. God is serious about rest.
So for 7 days I seriously rested. I don’t have any amazing stories to write about what God did in the Bahamas. What happened was simply boring, uneventful rest. Life slowed down and was examined. I reconnected with friends, with Corey, and with God. Not in an amazing life altering way… but in the way you plug your iPod back in to charge. I was still for 7 days… and in the midst of it I heard God simply say “This is good.”
I think I understand why God is so serious about rest. It’s not until we stop moving that we can examine where we’re going. This past week I examined my priorities… I examined my actions… I examined my heart… I found what is good in life and celebrated it. I found what was broken in life and began letting God fix me. This is why being still is so important… until you stop you can’t see.
Before we went to the Bahamas I felt the need to make excuses to prove that it’s okay for us to take a vacation. Now I simply am thankful that God commands us to stop and rest. And He calls it good.
